I had a young lady by the name of Ashley Renee Davison reach out to me a couple days ago to inform me that she wrote an excerpt about me in her paper about leadership. Ashley was one of the young ladies I hired when I opened the Dicks Sporting Goods in Lexington Park, MD. She was an incredible employee and an even better person. Her excerpt just goes to show you that you never really know how much of an impact you can have on someones life. I was beyond honored to read her kind words. Thanks again Ashley! Here they are... An Effective Leader One of the most effective leaders in my life is my first boss when I began my job in retail. Jason Brooks was new to being a store manager and was given the opportunity to open his first store in my town. From the beginning he was always a very enthusiastic and motivated leader. I remember how comfortable I felt speaking to him at my interview; he is a big people person. His goal was to make all his employees feel like a team, and he definitely accomplished it. Together we built the store from top to bottom, from filling in the empty building with fixtures and signage to displaying all the new merchandise. Before the store opening we had many different training and bonding sessions so that we could get to know our leaders and what they expected from us as well as get to know each other. Because of the time we spent in training and helping each other get the store ready for opening we felt a sense of pride in what we were doing. On opening day, Jason had me lead a team cheer to get us all motivated to do our best. He would continue that tradition by holding team meetings every morning and evening to keep all associates on the same pages and aware of everything we were accomplishing. Jason related to us and worked hard along side of us. He began in the company as a part-time associate and worked his way to the top, but he always made sure to show us that he strives to keep an active roll in the upkeep of our store too. He led the most successful store in the district for months on end because of how great a leader he was and how much it reflected in company statistics. I strive to be as great of a leader as Jason is. He showed me that you are never to young to win a promotion as long as you have the passion and the drive to work hard for it. He also showed me that it is important to make people feel important and feel that their jobs are important, do not ever ask someone to do something that you would not do yourself, always recognize others for their hard work, and do your best.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 03:21:52 +0000